# 1937 Philadelphia Athletics season

The 1937 Philadelphia Athletics season involved the A's finishing seventh in the American League with a record of 54 wins and 97 losses.

## Offseason

On January 11, 1937, at the club's annual meeting, John Shibe officially retired from the day-to-day operations of the Athletics, although he had not been with the team since August 1936. Connie Mack, the team's other principal owner, was elected club president. Shibe died on July 11, leaving Mack as sole owner of the team.

## Regular season

The Athletics had refused the American League's directives to add numbers to all player uniforms, and would not post visiting players' uniform numbers on the scoreboard. The team argued that they posted both teams' full lineups to the scoreboard, then the only ballpark to do so, making numbers superfluous. The team relented to its fans who wished to be able to identify pitchers warming up in the bullpens, and players during pregame practice.
The club started to use uniform numbers during the 1937 season. They were the last team in the American League to do so.
The Athletics set a Major League record which still stands for the fewest batters hit by a pitch in a season, with only 5.

### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 102 | 52 | .662 | — | 57‍–‍20 | 45‍–‍32 |
| Detroit Tigers | 89 | 65 | .578 | 13 | 49‍–‍28 | 40‍–‍37 |
| Chicago White Sox | 86 | 68 | .558 | 16 | 47‍–‍30 | 39‍–‍38 |
| Cleveland Indians | 83 | 71 | .539 | 19 | 50‍–‍28 | 33‍–‍43 |
| Boston Red Sox | 80 | 72 | .526 | 21 | 44‍–‍29 | 36‍–‍43 |
| Washington Senators | 73 | 80 | .477 | 28½ | 43‍–‍35 | 30‍–‍45 |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 54 | 97 | .358 | 46½ | 27‍–‍50 | 27‍–‍47 |
| St. Louis Browns | 46 | 108 | .299 | 56 | 25‍–‍51 | 21‍–‍57 |

### Record vs. opponents

1937 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | NYY | PHA | SLB | WSH |
| Boston | — | 10–12 | 11–11 | 12–10–1 | 7–15 | 17–3 | 15–7 | 8–14–1 |
| Chicago | 12–10 | — | 10–12 | 8–14 | 9–13 | 15–7 | 18–4 | 14–8 |
| Cleveland | 11–11 | 12–10 | — | 11–11 | 7–15–1 | 13–9 | 18–4–1 | 11–11 |
| Detroit | 10–12–1 | 14–8 | 11–11 | — | 9–13 | 14–8 | 15–7 | 16–6 |
| New York | 15–7 | 13–9 | 15–7–1 | 13–9 | — | 14–8 | 16–6–1 | 16–6–1 |
| Philadelphia | 3–17 | 7–15 | 9–13 | 8–14 | 8–14 | — | 11–11 | 8–13–3 |
| St. Louis | 7–15 | 4–18 | 4–18–1 | 7–15 | 6–16–1 | 11–11 | — | 7–15 |
| Washington | 14–8–1 | 8–14 | 11–11 | 6–16 | 6–16–1 | 13–8–3 | 15–7 | — |

### Roster
## Player stats
### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Earle Brucker | 102 | 317 | 82 | .259 | 6 | 37 |
| 1B | Chubby Dean | 104 | 309 | 81 | .262 | 2 | 31 |
| 2B | Rusty Peters | 116 | 339 | 88 | .260 | 3 | 43 |
| SS | Skeeter Newsome | 122 | 438 | 111 | .253 | 1 | 30 |
| 3B | Billy Werber | 128 | 493 | 144 | .292 | 7 | 70 |
| OF | Jess Hill | 70 | 242 | 71 | .293 | 1 | 37 |
| OF | Wally Moses | 154 | 649 | 208 | .320 | 25 | 86 |
| OF | Bob Johnson | 138 | 477 | 146 | .306 | 25 | 108 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Lou Finney | 92 | 379 | 95 | .251 | 1 | 20 |
| Jack Rothrock | 88 | 232 | 62 | .267 | 0 | 21 |
| Frankie Hayes | 60 | 188 | 49 | .261 | 10 | 38 |
| Wayne Ambler | 56 | 162 | 35 | .216 | 0 | 11 |
| Bill Cissell | 34 | 117 | 31 | .265 | 1 | 14 |
| Gene Hasson | 28 | 98 | 30 | .306 | 3 | 14 |
| Ace Parker | 38 | 94 | 11 | .117 | 2 | 13 |
| Bill Conroy | 26 | 60 | 12 | .200 | 0 | 3 |
| Warren Huston | 38 | 54 | 7 | .130 | 0 | 3 |
| Babe Barna | 14 | 36 | 14 | .389 | 2 | 9 |
| Doyt Morris | 6 | 13 | 2 | .154 | 0 | 0 |
| Eddie Yount | 4 | 7 | 2 | .286 | 0 | 1 |
| Hal Wagner | 1 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 | 0 |

### Pitching
#### Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| George Caster | 34 | 231.2 | 12 | 19 | 4.43 | 100 |
| Harry Kelley | 41 | 205.0 | 13 | 21 | 5.36 | 68 |
| Bud Thomas | 35 | 169.2 | 8 | 15 | 4.99 | 54 |
| Buck Ross | 28 | 147.1 | 5 | 10 | 4.89 | 37 |

#### Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Eddie Smith | 38 | 196.2 | 4 | 17 | 3.94 | 79 |
| Al Williams | 16 | 75.1 | 4 | 1 | 5.38 | 27 |
| Bill Kalfass | 3 | 12.0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 | 9 |
| Chubby Dean | 2 | 9.0 | 1 | 0 | 4.00 | 4 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| George Turbeville | 31 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4.77 | 17 |
| Lynn Nelson | 30 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 5.90 | 49 |
| Herman Fink | 28 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4.05 | 18 |
| Randy Gumpert | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.00 | 5 |
| Fred Archer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 | 2 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| A | Williamsport Grays | New York–Pennsylvania League | Ollie Marquardt |
| D | Federalsburg Athletics | Eastern Shore League | George Short |